Kurdish guerrillas called off a six-month ceasefire today, threatening a fragile peace in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast ahead of a national election in June.
The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a decades-long fight against the Turkish state, will now respond to any attack on its forces, Ahmet Deniz, a member of the PKK leadership in northern Iraq said.
"Our position has now changed, and we are assuming an active defence. Any kind of attack on us will now definitely be answered," he said.
Mr Deniz said the PKK is ending the one-sided truce because prime minister Tayyip Erdogan's government has not adequately pursued initiatives to resolve the conflict, which has claimed 40,000 lives, mainly Kurdish.
The PKK declared a "period of non-action" in August and then extended it until the election, now set for June 12th, to give the ruling AK Party space to address Kurdish grievances, it said.
The ceasefire has coincided with the winter months when the PKK traditionally winds down attacks due to adverse weather conditions in the remote mountains of the border region of Turkey, Iraq and Iran, where the PKK is based.
"The period of non-action that we had developed for a democratic resolution has lost its validity, because of the policies of denial and annihilation pursued by the AK Party government," a statement from the PKK said.
Turkey's military has continued shelling PKK sites every day since the group halted hostilities against the army, Mr Deniz said. Officially, Turkey does not recognise the ceasefire and has vowed to continue fighting the militants.
The PKK took up arms in 1984 in a bid to carve out an ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey but has scaled back demands to greater political autonomy and cultural rights for Turkey's estimated 15 million ethnic Kurds.
Mr Deniz said the trial of 152 Kurdish activists and politicians ahead of the election showed the government was not sincere about ending the conflict.
Mr Erdogan launched a Kurdish "opening" in 2009 which aimed to broaden cultural rights for Turkey's largest minority in a bid to end the fight with the PKK but the effort has faltered. Political analysts say the AK Party could lose votes if it tries to revive the effort as it gears up for election season.
Reuters